Britain’s Prince Harry attended a launch party for Rugby World Cup 2015 on Thursday (September 17) evening, as England prepares to open the tournament against Fiji in front of 80,000 expectant fans at Twickenham Stadium in London on Friday (September 18).
Harry was joined by British Prime Minister David Cameron and rugby legend Jason Leonard, who’s also the president of Rugby Football Union (RFU), to celebrate the eve of the tournament in central London.
“This time tomorrow, I’m excited to say, we’ll be enjoying the start of six very special weeks of rugby. We’ll see the world’s best players compete for the Webb Ellis Cup, here, where the game was born almost 200 years ago,” said Harry in a speech to the party attendees.
“It gives me huge pleasure again to welcome the world to the United Kingdom. We did it for those wonderful Olympics and Paralympics, we did it again for the Commonwealth Games, and it is a huge pleasure to welcome the world for this Rugby World Cup to Britain, the best home of sport, the best host of sport that you can possibly have,” echoed Cameron.
England are in the “shape of their lives” for the Rugby World Cup, will peak from the opening game and can handle the pressure of being tournament hosts, forwards coach Graham Rowntree said.
Twickenham will be a cauldron of noise and expectation when England play Fiji on Friday to open the global showpiece.
The Rugby World Cup tournament takes place from September 18 – October 31 and will feature teams from 20 nations. England hosted the 1991 rugby World Cup with Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France.
